"From the Bay to the Blue Ridge"
©2017 Sarah Becker The Sounds of Silence In 1966 Simon & Garfunkel had a number one song, President Lyndon B. Johnson created the U.S. Department of Transportation, and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. (D-VA) died at his Berryville home. The Byrd machine passed politically from father to son, Johnson appointed the first […]
By Sarah Becker ©2017 Born in 1917—100 years ago—President John F. Kennedy (D-MA) died in his prime. On November 22, 1963 an assassin shot Kennedy dead. He died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet. Kennedy was the fourth U.S. President to succumb to such wounds. For Kennedy, the past was […]
By Sarah Becker © 2017 An Act to Encourage Immigration Abraham Lincoln, in his 1864 holiday proclamation, praised Almighty God for augmenting “our free population by emancipation and by immigration…” To immigrate: to enter and settle in a foreign country. To naturalize: to admit a foreigner to citizenship. In 1790 naturalization was limited […]
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House ©2017 Sarah Becker by Sarah Becker Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian master work, the Pope-Leighey House is situated in a wooded hollow, an accepted part of historic Woodlawn’s 19th century landscape. Built for journalist Loren B. Pope, in 1940, the 1200 square feet house was moved to Woodlawn in […]
By Sarah Becker ©2017 Alexandria’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority [ARHA] follows the money. Least cost analysis has replaced cost beneficial. Lesser payments are negotiated in lieu of property taxes [PILT]. Soft loans include below market interest rates and subsidies, to the extent they are acknowledged, are non-neutral. Opportunity costs, lost opportunity costs especially […]
By Sarah Becker ©2017 WWI: The Centennial “Woodrow Wilson may well have witnessed more dramatic changes in national and global affairs than any other president since [George] Washington,” Carter Smith wrote. “He entered Presidential office [on March 4, 1913] a highly regarded reformer.” His foreign policy was not nearly as aggressive as his domestic. Then […]
Poodle-doo Written by Parker A. Poodle ™ ©2017 Sarah Becker February 2017 The weather is warming, springtime awaits, and the dogwoods debate their blooms. I welcome the change of seasons. March 2 is Read Across America Day and I invite all to sit with me beneath the trees, a book in paw or hand. […]
Steamboats: Rumsey and Fulton By Sarah Becker © 2017 The discovery of the Mariner’s Compass Gave Commerce to the World…and the Introduction of the Creative System of Canals…will Give an Agricultural Polish To every Acre of America,” artist turned inventor Robert Fulton wrote President George Washington in 1796. Fulton, born in Pennsylvania, moved to London […]
Presidential Elections by ©2016 Sarah Becker “Differences in political opinions are as unavoidable as, to a certain point, they may perhaps be necessary,” President George Washington wrote Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton on August 26, 1792, “but it is to be regretted, exceedingly, that subjects cannot be discussed with temper [calmness] on the […]
Red Jacket & Religion By Sarah Becker ©2016 In 1754, during the French and Indian War, Benjamin Franklin presented his Plan of the Union to seven colonies at a meeting in Albany, New York. He acknowledged the Iroquois League, its national structure then explained his proposal. His Plan rejected, the Articles of Confederation followed […]
